Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 080
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') [Son of Sennacheri]b, [king of the world, king of Assyria, descendant of Sargon (II)], king of the world, [king of Assyria, governor of Baby]lon, king of Sum[er and Akkad] — (3b') [... that I] had conqu[ered with the] help of the god Aššur, my lord, [... (5′) ... the armo]ry, which is in Kalḫu, [... — I made (it) greater] than before. [...] the previous kings, my ancestors, for the son [... a bīt]-ḫilāni, a place for his leisure ... [...] ... the sides of that building ... [... I incorporated] unused [la]nd as an ad[dition ...] of the city [...]
Source: Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003309/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[DUMU mdEN.ZU-ŠEŠ.MEŠ-eri]-⸢ba⸣ [LUGAL ŠÚ LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI] / [DUMU mLUGAL-GI.NA] LUGAL ŠÚ [LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI] / [GÌR.NÍTA KÁ.DINGIR].⸢RA⸣.KI LUGAL KUR ⸢šu⸣-[me-ri u URI.KI ...] / [... ša ina tu]-⸢kul⸣-ti AN.ŠÁR EN-ia ik-⸢šu⸣-[da qa-ta-a-a ...]1 / [... É.GAL ma]-⸢šar⸣-ti ša qé-reb URU.kal-ḫi [...] / [...] ⸢e⸣-li ša u₄-me pa-ni [ú-šá-tir ...] / [...] LUGAL.MEŠ AD.MEŠ-ia maḫ-ru-te a-na DUMU x…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003309.
Attribution
Image: Created by Erle Leichty, Jamie Novotny, and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, 2011, 2017. Lemmatized by Jamie Novotny, 2010, and updated by him, 2017, for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q003309/..
Translation excerpted from Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003309/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.